


Tangled up in Blue

by alexcat



Series: Tangled up in Blue [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-15 02:18:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14781758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Steve is oddly attracted to Nebula and she is oddly attracted back.





	Tangled up in Blue

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda like odd pairings. I am an odd person.

She had attached herself to him, following him around and actually almost smiling once in a while. He actually liked her fierceness and her intelligence, the way she said exactly what she meant. She was so very alien. And she was probably as much metal as flesh. 

Her life as one of Thanos’ adopted children was hard. He had turned her into a cyborg and a killer, driving her with cruelty and an odd pride in her resilience. He had driven a wedge between her and her sister and then forced her sister to sacrifice herself to save her.

So here she was on Earth. 

And here he was, a hundred year old man with the body of a young man and a heart that might as well have been a machine like Nubula’s. 

Steve Rogers watched her. She seemed to be paying no attention to him, but he knew she took in almost everything around her. 

As he was heading to the gym, she caught up with him. 

“Do you go to train?” 

“Mostly just to work out. I’m still banged up from the battle, and so is everyone else.” 

“At least no one removes your damaged parts and replaces them.” 

“No, my parts are all still mine.” 

“I’m going with you.” 

His favorite thing in the gym was still an old fashioned punching bag and they had accommodated him here in Wakanda. He punched and Nebula watched. 

She handed him his towel when he came over to where she sat. “You know, with some cybernetics, you could be much faster and stronger.” 

“I’m already faster and stronger than most people.”

He was surprised when she touched his arm, squeezing his muscle but not too hard. “I am often shocked at how fragile living creatures are. I could pull your arm off quite easily.”

“I hope you don’t.”

“I am sure the queen could make you a new one, one that would be quite an efficient weapon.” 

“I would enjoy not having to fight all the time.” 

She tilted her head and looked hard him. “Would you? What would you do?” 

The question took him aback. He really had never thought about it. What would he do? He had no family, no job skills, he was a fugitive.

“I guess that’s something I’ll find out when the time comes.”

“Do you have a mate? My sister had a mate, Peter Quill. Love made her soft, though she did seem happy about Quill.”

“Nope, I don’t have a mate. I was born a hundred years ago and I accidently got preserved in ice for over 60 years. When I woke, everyone I knew was old or dead, but I’d not aged.” 

“I saw you with Stark. And with Romanov. Was this not mating for humans? It’s certainly what Peter Quill and Gamora did.”

He blushed. “We mate but we are not mates.” 

“Ah, just recreation then?” 

“Friendship. And yes, recreation.” 

He decided to run and she ran with him, easily keeping up. “What will you do next?” 

“Shower.” 

“Can I come too?” 

“Won’t you rust?” 

“I am not a tin can and no, I will not _rust_.”

“People usually prefer to shower alone.” 

“Hmmm… I saw you and Stark go into the shower.”

“How do you see these things? We were discreet.” 

“I have little to do. Everyone is scared of me. I watch and I am very, very quiet when I wish to be.” 

He sighed. She wouldn’t be the first woman who’d he taken to the showers. She _would_ be the first alien woman. 

She peeled of her tightfitting suit when they reached Steve’s quarters. He stared. Nebula was definitely female with everything in the right place. Her arm, leg and part of her face were obvious replacements. They didn’t look entirely unlike Bucky’s had. There was a long, precise scar down the center of her chest. She had other scars, uglier ones, from injuries treated on the run. 

He found himself wondering what her skin would feel like. Was it metallic? Was she heavy? Were her organs in the same places as humans? 

“Let’s see you, human. Off with the clothes.” 

Steve shrugged and stripped. There was not much sexual about any of it but yet there was something intimate. She touched his body as she had touched his arm, squeezing and running her hand over him as if she were touching a fine automobile. 

There were still some ugly burn marks and bruises on his left side. He hadn’t told anyone how badly he’d been injured, knowing that the really badly injured needed help more than he did. 

“Will the shower hurt the injury?”

“Maybe make it sting a little. I have some ointment for the burns.”

He turned the water on. “Together?” He asked as he gestured to the shower. 

She nodded and stepped under the water. It was fairly hot; Steve liked it steamy and hot. It eased his aching muscles. He grabbed a bar of soap and began to soap himself. She grabbed his arm in a steely grip and held her hand out for the soap. He let go and she soaped his back, taking some time to rub the kinks in his shoulders. She bathed him all over except for one last part. 

“Your sex organ?” She nodded at him and asked. 

“Uh, yeah.” 

“I shall not wash it then unless you wish me to.” 

“I think I can do that.” He said as she handed him the soap and watched as he did. The problem was his penis didn’t much care who was rubbing it right now. It was a little too pleased at any attention. “Shit,” he murmured as he felt himself harden under her gaze. 

“Don’t worry. I’ll break it off if you bother me,” she said with a smile. Her smile was scarier than he expected. 

Even that didn’t discourage it so he decided to ignore it. 

He soaped his hands and turned her around to wash her back. Her skin was different, not quite as warm as human skin but smoother because it lacked hair. She made a sound that he could have sworn was a sigh as he rubbed her shoulders. 

“What did you do in the shower with Romanov?” 

Even though her back was to him, he blushed. He and Natasha had done several things in the shower. 

“Ahh, sex. And Stark too?” She said. 

“Mmmm, yeah.” 

“Stark is noisy. He talks all the time.” 

He turned her around and washed her shoulders and her chest. He wasn’t sure what to do about her breasts so he just soaped them too. 

“Close your eyes and I’ll wash your head.” 

She obeyed and let him clean her head and her face. She turned her face up to the spray. He handed her the soap. “You do the rest.” She did. 

“Are you good at sex?” 

He didn’t know how to answer that. 

“Do you adequately please your partners?” She pressed. 

“I think so. I try, but you’d have to ask them.” 

He turned the water off and handed her a towel. He’d meant for her to dry herself but she dried him, touching him very gently where his injuries were. She dried all of him, even the part she skipped in the bath then she dried herself. When she was done she handed him the towel and put her clothes back on. 

“If you will find this ointment, I will put it on for you.”

He handed her the tube and she very gently rubbed it all over the deep red burns. 

“You should dress now. If people see us, they’ll think you had sex with me, too, and I’m not sure you want that.” 

There was something about what she said that made him angry. Her words brought back memories of the skinny little runt he’d been, the boy that girls petted like a puppy but never kissed or anything else, the boy no one would be seen with. 

“I don’t care what people think. If you and I decide to have sex, it’s our business and no one else’s.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Do your people kiss?” He asked her. 

“The mouth touching thing? Gamora liked that. She kissed Quill a lot. I have not done it.” 

“May I kiss you?” 

She turned her head and looked at him oddly, tensely, then relaxed and nodded. 

He realized he was still naked but decided to ignore it. He leaned down and took her chin in his hand and touched his lips to hers. Hers were cool and soft and she parted them slightly and leaned closer to him. He slipped his arms around her and kissed her more deeply, slipping his tongue inside her parted lips. After a few minutes, he lifted his head and looked at her. 

“That was pleasant. I should like to try it again sometime,” she said then she left him standing there and let herself out of his quarters. He realized two things. He’d like to kiss her again. And he was as hard as a rock.


End file.
